LEVERAGING A FEMTOCELL NETWORK FOR PREMISES MANAGEMENT OR MONITORING

• US 20110085525A1
• Filed: 10/13/2009
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Patini, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 9,279,699 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2204/45 Utility meters networked together within a single building
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

The disclosed subject matter relates to an architecture that can leverage femtocell network infrastructure in order to facilitate premises management or monitoring. In particular, the architecture can leverage the local presence of a home nodeB (HNB) located at a premises associated with a subscriber in order to aggregate, process and/or distribute various state information that can be collected at the premises.

Claims

1. A system that leverages femtocell network infrastructure to facilitate premises management or monitoring, comprising:

a communication component that interfaces to a home nodeB (HNB) device that operates at a premises associated with a management or monitoring service; and

a sensor management component that receives state information from at least one sensor, wherein the state information relates to a state of the premises detected by the at least one sensor in accordance with the management or monitoring service.

2. The system of claim 1, the communication component is included in the HNB device or the communication component is on the premises remote from and communicatively coupled to the HNB device.

3. The system of claim 1, the at least one sensor transmits the state information to the sensor management component wirelessly.

4. The system of claim 1, the state information relates to a reading obtained by the at least one sensor from a utility meter that tracks usage of a resource in connection with the premises.

5. The system of claim 4, the resource is at least one of natural gas, propane, electricity, water, or waste or processing thereof.

6. The system of claim 4, the at least one sensor is operatively or communicatively coupled to the utility meter.

7. The system of claim 4, the at least one sensor is an imaging device that obtains state information from the utility meter based upon an image of at least a portion of the utility meter.

8. The system of claim 1, the state information relates to at least one of a state of an alarm system at the premises;

a state or activity level of resource consumption at the premises;

a state associated with an ambient condition at the premises.

9. The system of claim 1, the sensor management component automatically requests the state information from the at least one sensor at a predetermined interval, or instructs the at least one sensor to automatically transmit the state information at the predetermined interval.

10. The system of claim 1, the communication component receives a real time request for the state information;

and the sensor management component instructs the at least one sensor to immediately transmit the state information.

11. The system of claim 1, the communication component facilitates propagation of the state information by way of the HNB device to a master management component of the management or monitoring service associated with a femtocell network provider.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a transformation component that transforms the state information prior to propagation by the communication component, the transformation component receives raw state information as transmitted by the at least one sensor and transforms the raw state information to processed state information based upon at least one of optical character recognition (OCR), object recognition, or formatting or processing according to a desired output.

13. A system that employs a femtocell network to facilitate a premises management or monitoring service, comprising:

an interface component that is configured to interface to a set of home nodeB (HNB) devices, the interface component receives state information from a specific HNB device included in the set, wherein the state information is obtained by at least one sensor at a premises and relates to a state of the premises associated with a location of the specific HNB device; and

a master management component that stores the state information to a data store in an account record associated with the specific HNB device or a user thereof; and

that employs the state information to provide a premises management or monitoring service.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a service component that interfaces to at least one third party network associated with a third party, wherein the at least one third party network relates to at least one of a utility provider, a security provider, or an emergency service provider.

15. The system of claim 14, the service component provides a secure login for the at least one third party in order to access data stored in the data store or to request a real time reading from the at least one sensor;

and the master management component enables, via the specific HNB or a web-based login, access to the account record, setting of one or more predefined thresholds, examination of a current state of the premises, or an update to a current state of the premises.

16. The system of claim 15, the master management component (1) produces a comparison between the state information and the one or more predefined thresholds associated with the specific HNB device;

or (2) facilitates transmission of a notification to at least one of the third party or to the specific HNB device or the user thereof based upon the comparison.

17. The system of claim 16, the notification is a short message service (SMS) message with a uniform resource locator (URL) embedded in the SMS message that references at least one of a threshold setting, an invoice, a receipt, or additional information.

18. A method for leveraging femtocell network infrastructure for facilitating home/office management or monitoring, comprising:

interfacing to a home nodeB (HNB) module operating at a home/office associated with a management or monitoring service;

interfacing to at least one sensor at or proximal to the home/office that identifies characteristics associated with the home/office; and

receiving state information from the at least one sensor, the state information describing a state of the premises identified by the at least one sensor.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising at least one of the following acts:

interfacing the at least one sensor to a utility meter;

receiving the state information from the at least one sensor based upon a configuration of the utility meter or based upon an optical image of all or a portion of the utility meter;

receiving the state information from the at least one sensor based upon a configuration of an alarm system, a non-metered resource consuming device, or an ambient condition monitor or device;

receiving the state information from the at least one sensor in a wireless manner;

automatically requesting the state information from the at least one sensor at a predefined interval;

instructing the at least one sensor to automatically transmit the state information at a predefined interval;

or

transmitting the state information upstream by way of the HNB module to a central server associated with a femtocell network provider.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising at least one of the following acts:

receiving a real time request for the state information from a third party network that is communicatively coupled to the femtocell network;

providing the state information to the third party network in response to the real time request;

storing the state information to a data store included in the femtocell network referenced to an account associated with the HNB module;

transmitting a notification to the third party network when the state information matches a predefined state;

providing an interface for the third party network to securely access associated account data or an associated sensor at the home/office;

or providing an interface to securely access account information or settings, or to manage the account.